My intonation is screwed...HELP!!!

[King Elvis]

I have a 1980 Fender Lead II that I had to change the neck out on. The neck that I got was sitting too high in the pocket so I chisled the pocket down a little bit. The guitar is 25.5 scale and I string it with 10's so I adjusted the bridge saddles as close as I could. Now keep in mind this is all trial and error since I am no pro at this. Now my intonation is all screwed up and I was wondering could the problem be with the string trees on the headstock or do I need to adjust the angle of the neck a little bit as the strings are sitting up a little higher than I would like. I feel that I may have chisled it out a tad too much and I am thinking about shimming the neck slightly, do you think that this will help the intonation by putting a slight angle to the neck?? Let me also add that the reason I think that it is a neck issue is that the harmonics at the 12th fret dont ring the way they should.

 

[scottboyher]

My suggestions is to take it to a pro.. You are just gonna get a headache over this.. Go to a pro!

 

[Even]

Dude, you chisled out the seat too much. Take it to a tech to get it shimmed right. The string trees dont change a thing. all they do is hold the strings in place so they wont hop out of the nut. but the nut is still stationary so thats the set point. You MAY be able to adjust the bridge slightly to compensate, but that will cost you intonation above the 12 fret, or at best jack up your action.

No question... reshim it via a legitimate shop.

 

[King Elvis]

No, actually I got it under control now. The neck is sitting better in the seat than I thought. A little truss rod adjustment and a readjustment of the bridge saddles and the thing is singing now. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[flash2ace]

hi king havnt seen you in a while. glad to see you gott it worked out. intonation can at times be a real bi@# to figure out.
thats like my locking trmolo floyd rose on my ibanez i cant get the spring tention set up wright no matter what i do, if i drop the low e down to d the rest of the guitar drops way outta tune, and after i fix that and i gotta tune it back up to e it goes out again. ive tried everything to fix this to no avail. but im glad you gott it going man. god bless tim pate.